Overview on Shamanism

The Ancient Mayans living in the Amazon honest shamanism and Shamans were an integral part of apiece society or culture. While Shamanism is interpreted and practiced differently among cultures and in ancient and contemporary times, each of the cosmopolitan elements of Shamanism express the central role of the Shaman for the federation of believers. These elements that ar common to all forms of Shamanism include:

. strong drink race important roles in human lives.

. Shamans can run across and cooperate with the liven up for the community's benefit.

. Spirits can be either good or bad.

. Shamans use rituals aimed at altering consciousness.

. Animals play important roles in human lives as they serve as spiritual guides.

. Shamans can treat illness or unsoundness and are healer, gurus, and magicians.

Other cultures also adopted the practice of Shamanism and for a variety of reasons ranging from the political to the spiritual. Shamanism is basically a belief in the supernatural, especially the capacity for human beings to be able to communicate with the spirits that control the human sphere. In cultures like the Mongol tribes during the 1200s, supernatural spirits were viewed as ordinarily interacting in

Grant, Bruce. Concise cyclopaedia of the American Indian. New York: Wings, 1999.

Among Native Americans, "medicine" was a sting with the supernatural world. "Medicine: objects, like totems and totem poles, were regarding as having the power to " foster their wearers or owners" (Grant 197). Medicine men, or Shamans, served as guides to and interpreters of the spirit world, scarce individuals also had the capacity to participate in the world of the spirits in Native American culture. Medicine was a lot exceedingly personal, in that an individual identified those creatures of elements of the natural world that had meaning, value, and capture in his life through the practice of powerful rituals that were often guided by Shamans.

Nevertheless, Conn (22) maintains that the Shaman provided a " certain sense of purpose" and a shared "deep identity operator" for Native American communities.

Blackburn, Barry. Theios Aner and the Markan Miracle Traditions. Tubingen: Mohr, 1991.

Eppich, Ronald S. "Basic Shamanism." 2008. 14 April 2008. http://www.easlespiritministry.com/ belief/sc/scl.htm, 1-12.

In most cultures that practice Shamanism, the Shaman is viewed as having several roles (doctor, psychiatrist, minister, etc.), but Eppich (2) notes the following functions are typical of all Shamans: 1) healing the diseased; accessing new or ancient association from the Otherworld; and, 3) foretelling the future. Blackburn (13) maintains that the Shaman is closely aligned with the concept of " divine Man" or Theios Aner in Greek, a concept that designates a religio-philosophical hero or legend that is characterized by "great virtue, wisdom, and religion" so that they take on characteristics of the Divine. The ability of the Shaman to consociate with the spirit world posits them as the individual in the community who is most able to defend it from bas spirits, illness, and other negative energies. Shamans are viewed as individuals capable of "touching in both rea
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